[NYE Party] happy new year and lots of fun

[nascensibility]

Who: EVERYONE, but especially you!
Where: Wonderland Ballroom
When: New Year's Eve
Rating: PG - PG13 (will change if applicable)
Summary: New Year's Eve Party
The Story:

[ Previously in the month all residents received an invitation to a formal event: a black tie affair to ring in the New Year. The ballroom and adjacent areas are decked out for the party starting at eight o'clock sharp, meticulously planned and executed, glittering décor to match the no doubt glittering attire as music pours into the halls from the dance floor.

Bars flank each side, service for all manner of alcohol unless a minor requests something, and the primary setting stage features an enormous clock for the countdown. ]




[ Where will you be when the clock strikes midnight? ]

Comments

[hypoxic]

[And at that, Fitz shrinks down altogether. His voice trembles, lowering to a scant whisper. He's not had enough to drink at the pint's almost empty. Maybe he's already had too much and that's why he's still talking in the first place.]

He didn't want to get involved. I forced him. Nobody ought to have known about what we did together. Everything that happened to him came after I saw something I oughtn't have seen.

[mucked]

[ at first blush it appears as though there are a few disparate threads at which she might pull. and, like all delicate wire-work, pulling the wrong one might prompt it all to blow up in her face.

and that would be terrible. not merely because of the setback but because there is a real and present part of her that dreads jeopardizing the rapport she's built with agent fitz. and not because of his usefulness or his gadgets or anything like that -- not even because in a very real way he is her legacy -- but because she likes the fellow. he's quick and clever and maybe a touch morose but he still manages to display kindness in a career that so often discourages it.

so -- with a smallest tremor in her tone: ]

Fitz. What did you see?

[hypoxic]

[He leans forward, head crashing against a palm.]

He had powers. Could jump between dimensions. But he was skittish about it. Didn't want anyone to know. There was a stigma where he was from. I -- couldn't protect him well enough.

[mucked]

[ christ alive.

peggy straightens even as fitz bows. her instinct is to check her shoulders -- and she does, indulging in that old paranoia that makes her make certain that no one is paying any attention to the two people sitting and drinking and talking. but if she draws this out too long and too far that tide of attention might change.

so what she does do is reach for one of fitz's hands. it's a light touch -- just pads of fingers on the back of his knuckles. it's nothing like a hug. but she has to acknowledge in some way what fitz is trying to tell her: he feels he forced his colleague (his friend, possibly) into a caper that ended poorly for more than just them. is it any wonder he's trying so hard to discourage anyone else from attempting the same? ]

You saw something spectacular in him and you wanted to celebrate it. [ she doesn't absolve him of his guilt -- that kind of lip service rarely sinks in, after all. ] But other forces saw that same ability -- saw the work the both of your pursued -- and only recognized what they could ruin and weaponize.

[ sounds like a typical work day, unfortunately. ]

Is that what happened?

[hypoxic]

[He'd been saying it since the start. It's his fault. That Cisco's name should never have been part of the fallout. That Cisco was manipulated shouldn't be part of the story. There wouldn't have been a project to sabotage if it hadn't been for him. People are always too busy trying to console him that they ignore the very real part he played in the tragedy. They made it about him when he never should have been.

He accepts her touch when it comes, but doesn't encourage it further.]

He said it was my mirror who tortured him after he was abducted. He couldn't look at me for weeks after. I still don't know what they did to him.

[mucked]

I've met your mirror. He's a cold bastard, that's for certain.

[ you know what? this is worth the diversion. a detour, perhaps, towards reminding fitz that there should be no sin in optimism and determination. if there was, good lord, steve rogers would never have gotten further than his collection of 4f rejections. ]

Which says a hell of a lot more about you than it does about him.

[ yes, the portal and its attempt it important. yes, she's never been closer to getting more intel about it than she is right now. but what good is intel if it -- like all bad evidence -- is merely fruit from a poisoned tree? no -- this sort of thing takes a bit of proper cultivation. ]

[hypoxic]

[He straightens when she mentions that, quickly clasping her hand in both of his.]

You met with him?? Are you all right? He didn't harm you, did he?

[mucked]

-- I look alright, don't I?

[ she deflects his concern with raised eyebrows and a shake of her head. she'd love to suggest that if harm had come to her she would have let him know far far sooner. but in reality, that would have been precisely the sort of thing she'd keep to herself. ]

It was hardly pleasant but there was no cause for fisticuffs.

[hypoxic]

You're sure. No -- odd chemicals, or anything of the sort?

[He's not sure his heart would be able to bear it if someone else was taken in.]

[mucked]

We passed each other in the hall. I realized he wasn't you straight away -- it was a chance meeting. [ it must have been. surely. ]

Nothing happened. [ and fitz is so concerned! her fingers stay where they are. ] I'm fine. Honest.

[hypoxic]

[ he lets out a breath, but doesn't release her hand just yet. ]

I want you to know that I take full responsibility over what he does. If he even scratches on your window, I want to know about it. All right?

[mucked]

[ you know, she should be more bothered about the way he presumes to tell her to report back about anything -- even that -- but she's far too thrown by the first half of what fitz has to say. ]

Why on earth would you take full responsibility for him?

[hypoxic]

Because he wouldn't be here if it weren't for me.

[It seems like such a simple conclusion. Why doesn't everyone come to it?]

[mucked]

[ you know what? she's been TERRIBLY supportive. almost to the point of feeling worried about her own sentimentality breaking through. but there's only so much that peggy carter can stomach before she can't help herself: ]

That's bollocks.

[ so eloquent! so charming! ]

Self-flagellation on that level really requires you to have had a dash of agency in being here. And unless you're hiding a much more interesting secret, Fitz, I can't imagine you've had any more choice in the matter than I have.

[hypoxic]

I...I'm.. sorry?

[He releases her hand then, momentarily stunned.]

Are you... Could. You perhaps rephrase that?

[mucked]

You didn't choose to be here. None of us did. Taking responsibility for something that exists as a direct result of you being here is -- it's like apologizing for your very existence.

[ she squares her shoulders. ]

And I'm not going to sit here and listen to that. It's bull. Yes, your mirror exists because you exist. But that doesn't make it your responsibility any more than being here is your responsibility.

[hypoxic]

[ it's a chiding as effective as if she'd slapped him. He blinks twice, speechless, before summoning sound once more. ]

I didn't mean to imply... [ is she cross with him? ]

[mucked]

Go on, then. What did you mean to imply?

[ it's not a challenge so much as it is a second chance. an opportunity to articulate his guilt without digging chunks out of himself in the process. there's nothing responsible, peggy believes, in outfitting oneself with an undeserved hair shirt. ]

[hypoxic]

[But now he's increasingly frantic, stammering. He sits up straighter.]

I meant -- simply that... I...

[He takes a deeper breath.] The mirrors are offshoots of ourselves, y-yes? So it stands to reason that it -- if I were stronger, or more-- of a certain way, then it would diminish the mirror's effectiveness. And perhaps make him less of an overt threat?

[There, that's better right.]

[mucked]

What possible quality -- what possible property -- would you tolerate in yourself simply so you might deprive your mirror of that same attribute?

[ to take on heartlessness in order to give his mirror more heart. to take on cruelty in himself as that might somehow soften his reflection. when, from where peggy's standing, effectiveness is not the polarizing trait between the pair of them. ]

[hypoxic]

Whatever it takes. If -- there's anything that can be done to mitigate a consistant threat, shouldn't we be willing to make those calls?

[mucked]

-- And risk, what? Transmogrifying yourself into the threat instead?

[ no matter, it's all a very metaphysical conversation -- and one that peggy clearly doesn't care for, given the crinkle in her nose. ]

You're good as you are, Agent Fitz. [ ... ] One only needs to meet your mirror once to see who got the better end of that reflection.

[hypoxic]

Not instead, but -- if there was a middle ground. If. [There's always another option.]

It's probably telling that you're so comfortable. Your mirror was quite anxious when I saw her.

[mucked]

[ well. that makes two. mister queen talked about seeing her mirror crying at the last formal occasion held here in wonderland. and here's fitz, describing the creature as an anxious one.

she hides her reaction rather better than he did. and with good reason, considering it sounds as though peggy's mirror poses far less of an obvious threat than his. it's easier not to get swept up in panic.

her curiosity takes a nauseating twist, however. ]

Anxious about what? [ the what doesn't matter, does it? it's more about measuring just how much of an interaction the pair had. ]